Category: Bits and bobs

A while ago I had an interesting e-mail exchange with someone who also writes books. This happens in writer circles, would you believe it? In one of the mails he wrote, “I’d like to recommend some of my books but since I’m the author…”

This raised the next question with me:

“Is it bad to recommend your own books?”

Self-promotion and self-publishing.

I know, it’s bad to say self-publishing since it’s preferred to say Indie publishing. But that would make the first part “Indie-promotion” and that looks weird, doesn’t it?

So, back to self-promo for self/Indie publishers.

After some thinking of the brainy kind I reached the conclusion that it’s not only a smart thing to do but even a necessary thing to do. It’s not done trying to flog your books to other writers, but there is a difference between “Hey, you, buy my book!” (which feels as if there is an “or else” coming up right after it) and talking about a specific, interesting kind of book and you’ve happened to have written some stuff in that realm.

And why is this a smart and necessary thing to do, you might ask.

Well… self and indie publishing kind of says it all, doesn’t it? You do it yourself. Independently. Which makes it easy in the following way:

If you don’t do it, who will?!

If you don’t open your trap about what you do, no one will do it, except your fans. Don’t just rely on your fans. Some are quiet so there’s not always much to hear from them. Self-promotion is part of marketing and marketing is something most writers aren’t good at. I mean, look at me: I don’t do nearly enough in that field so do as I say, not as I do, okay? (And let me know how you succeeded!)

Recommend. Really. Do it.

Tooting your own horn isn’t considered the nice thing to do but unless you have horn-tooting folk who can, want to and will handle that for you, it all comes down to you. Even if you have horn-tooters who stand up for you, it’s good to stand up and tell the world, “Hey, world. Listen up. Look at me and look at what I did.” It’s part of your branding. (Note to self: read this later. It looks damned helpful.) It’s not the book or books you are selling. You’re selling yourself.

So recommend your own work if and where you can. Do keep an eye on the circumstances. Don’t recommend your book on second degree algebra in a discussion about game consoles. This is highly recommended.

Yes, dear reader, this is a truth. Writing is time travelling. I just got back from such a trip.

What happened?

Why did you go? And why did you come back? Was it not fun in the future? Or in the past? Or in the wherever the hell you’ve been?

Let me start at the beginning.

“In the beginning there was nothing.”

Oh. Wait. That’s a bit far back. Sorry, sometimes even my memory slips a few billion years. Where were we…

I am writing one of my many stories – because that’s what I do when I write: I write many stories at the almost same time – when I decided I got stuck. A man comes into the kitchen, his wife gets a scare, relaxes when it’s ‘only’ him, and he asks what her problem is. (Do note that this is part of the story I was referring to, not some random bit of coconut that goes on a journey to Jamaica. That’s another story.)

Okay, so these two, like the ones on your right, are in the kitchen. She’s hiding something. How does she react to his question?

The answer: I had no idea at all.

But you are the writer! You have all the answers!

I do, of course, but only after a bit of time travelling. So I got into my time machine. It looks like a bicycle. Don’t let that fool you. It’s cunning. Clever. Well disguised. And the phone box was already taken by Dr. Who, so that kind of limited my options. Anyway, onwards: I left man and woman in their kitchen and fast-forwarded to where the woman tells him what actually happened.

I’ve discovered that it’s nice to know that ahead of time so I can justify her odd, scared, shocked behaviour which rouses suspicion with the husband.

The bike ride time travelling proved to be a good idea. I was there, saw what happened while the husband wasn’t conscious (he was actually sleeping off his night shift, so he was there but didn’t know what happened).

Imagine an alternate universe, reserved for characters in books. And in that universe there’s a bar where they can all come together. What would it be like? In this blog post I’ll try to give you a glimpse of such a first occasion…

Let me transport you to this alternate universe where you become a character in a book and the characters from books are having a drink and a chat…

The place was rather empty. Behind the bar were Billow and Willow, who usually ran the tavern in Sunrise. “They’re late,” said Billow. His wife reminded him that some of the guests had to come from far away, and that the witch and her wizard had their own time table.

“Welcome,” Willow said as she came from behind the bar. “Find a seat. Can I get you anything to drink? I’m Willow. There’s Billow. You’re the first ones here so your round’s free.”

“Willow…” Billow didn’t like his wife’s generosity too much. It was bad for business.

Slowly the bar filled up. Eric Paul Carmichael and his wife Sandy came in, relieved that they were out of their spaceship for a while, followed by Clara in her red dress and Ron, the man who’d initially painted her. “It looks nice here,” said Clara. Ron complained about the smell, to Willow’s dismay. She assumed it was the stew she was preparing but Clara told her not to worry. “If he doesn’t smell paint he’s not happy.”

Then a cat came in, followed by a young woman carrying a bunch of paper. “Frankie, get off that table! I’m so sorry about that,” the woman apologised.

“Don’t worry about that,” said Willow. “We’re used to cats.”

Slowly the bar filled up with people and creatures who found places to sit, things to drink and others to talk to. The main topic was of course all the situations that their mental father put them in.

Ron: “Can you imagine how odd it was to end up inside a painting?”

“What? That’s weird.” Sabas scratched his head. “I got the better end of it.” He reached for Reny’s hand and had to explain how he’d gotten the strange skin. By the time he was almost done, Hilda and William came in. Obsi and Grim were with them, who joined Frankie on the table. It was as if the three had arranged to meet there.

“Crappedy crap. Crowded in here. Where’s my coffee?”

Billow waved at the witch. “Coming right up and you’ll love this. The real deal.” The wicked witch watched him make a serious mug of coffee and asked William if they could have such a machine at home.

The wizard said they could but… “We don’t have electricity to run it on so it would be just a waste of space.”

Hilda agreed. “The kitchen probably wouldn’t take well to it either. It’s too different from what we have.” She took the cup from Billow’s hand and smelled. “Hmmm. It’s different.” The witch frowned. “I think I’ve gotten used to what you make, wizard. Billow, better give me some tea. I have my personal coffee wizard with me.”

All characters mingled and chatted, exchanging ideas and problems they’d run into. Everyone had wonderful advice for the others, but the problem of course was that in the world of Sabas and Reny, magic didn’t exist, while for Ron and Clara the concept of huge Walkers and fights with Lergesh were impossible to grasp. Despite all their differences they got along fine, and the time to go home to their own homes and stories was there before they had scratched the surface of their accounts.

As Willow and Billow stood near the door, everyone said goodbye and promised they’d do their best to come back to the backroom bar another time.

Yes, amazing bouts of energy…

This was what I saw when I got up. I admit, it’s not the time for normal people to get up but then, I’ve never claimed to be one of those. I took this picture at 4:23 in the Ante Meridian, also know as silly o’clock.

There were two reasons to be up this early. One was an incredible amount of sirens around 4am. That hardly ever happens here so something big (bad…) must have happened. I still don’t know what the upheaval was.

The other reason was that I was awake, which is as good a reason as any to get up. I like getting up early. It gives me views as the picture above.

Wanted: adventurer

I’m still working on getting all the edits for that in place. Carol’s been working very hard to locate every typo and mistake I carefully hid in the text. She’s doing an extraordinary job at nit picking so I may have to find some better nits…

“Wanted: adventurer” is, as you may have guessed, the sequel to “Wanted: hero“. At first I was very reluctant about writing this second book, but comments and gentle pressure from some sides made me give in. It’s better to start a new book with all your fingers attached to the proper hands to write it, trust me.

And so this book is becoming a reality. The cover is still underway but I hope to see that soon(ish). There’s still enough work to do on this book. This morning I sat myself down and worked out more three chapters with edits. That inevitably resulted in some changes, tweaks and other adjustments, but all for the greater glory of Sabas and Reny.

I have 8 more chapters to go through, then I’m putting the book aside again and read it from start to end, to see if there’s anything that still needs a wiggle.

It has happened a few times already that my writing has been compared to that of other writers. So was “The Story of the Mimosa” compared to the “Hitch hiker’s Guide To The Galaxy “by no one less than Douglas Adams. Such praise is amazing and always welcome for a writer.

A few days ago, on a social medium called Ello, I was mentioned by someone so I had a look at the post. What I found there surprised me in the best way.

Someone wrote:

Since Terry Pratchett is gone I found on Ello a new favorite writer for fantasy literature. @paulkater

lucky me: he is alive and very creative… and I didn’t read all of his books, so I will have some more to read. but I took a new one with me called ‘The Magic of The Bull’. I read seldom the little texts on the backside of books, so I didn’t know anything about it. I read this book in two days, it’s so amazing. The beginning sketch a normal family with two kids in the funny age and the usual fightings between brother and sister. All is normal and not fantasy like until to a thunderstorm. Step by step send Paul Kater the heroes of this story on their way in the history of their living place…

This is the kind of praise that touches me deeply. Being compared to the man that I admire highly, Sir Terry Pratchett, is more than I had dared to dream of.

Sir Terry Prachett

I think I’ve read most of his books. The famous Discworld series is something that will stay in my memories forever. The witches he has developed and portrayed, the noble men of the Nightwatch, the great turtle Atuin on which the entire world travels through space, all of them are things that make me happy.

After finding that amazing review I found it too good not to share so I dropped a tiny bit of it on Twitter, and what happened:

Discovered on Twitter

Someone agrees.

I’m almost inclined to believe that it’s true. (And if it’s not true I’ll ignore your comments to that respect and float off in my little, happy bubble, knowing that there are at least a few people on this earth who know the truth! 😉 )

Anyway, this is where the tooting ends and the real work of a writer continues. Writing. Coming up with more stories. Working on continuing the dream.

I’ll leave you with a quote from one of Sir PTerry’s books:

‘Ankh-Morpork! Brawling city of a hundred thousand souls! And, as the Patrician privately observed, ten times that number of actual people.’

Hilda 19 is out since a while and you hear little from me. Part of that has to do with things in life. Things involving jobs, new jobs, other workplaces and so on. Those take up time and energy. Still I hope that someday I’ll be as good a writer as for instance Stephen King or Ursula Le Guin. That’s something for later, when I grow up. As I try to write this, my cat Grimalkin is walking over the keyboard, attracting attention.

So what’s happening in the area of real interest: books.

I’m working on book 20 of Hilda which is always a pleasure. Carol and I are still working on getting the sequel to “Wanted: hero” out there. The next book to come out will the “The Magic of the Bull”, which might be closer than you think. 🙂

In between all that I have also updated the cover for “Charisma, the young witch.”

Long time ago, in March 2014, I published a book called “A girl named Sandy“. Until this day I still consider this one of my best books.

The story has an open ending. Somehow that just happened. Of course this begs for a sequel. A few people mentioned that to me also, which is understandable. Who doesn’t want to know what happens to Sandy and Paul after everything they went though?

At some point in 2015 I started writing a sequel. The start of that looked promising but the further the story progressed, the more I lost interest. It wasn’t what I was looking for. After a few more attempts to revive the story I thought, “Bugger this. This isn’t going to work.” And so I left the not even half complete manuscript lying around on a hard disk where it refused to collect dust. (This is because hard disks are made to be dust free.)

Now, fast forward from 2015 to the start of this week.

On the way to work (yes, your favourite author still has a daytime job to manage the bills and such) I sat thinking about a world that’s not just Science Fiction and not just Fantasy but an intriguing mix of the two.

Can you see it in your mind already? You can?? Let me see! Oh, right. That’s interesting enough but… 😉

Grimalkin, a.k.a. Grim

Anyways, that idea popped back into my head when I was out doing some grocery shopping today (don’t ask me how my mind works, I don’t know either but it gets me through the days) and then I remember the dustless manuscript of the Sandy sequel. And a star was born! Or at least an idea. I shall retire the entire failed manuscript and start from scratch. (Hmm, suddenly one of my cats comes along for a scratch. Is she reading along here?)

So, to everyone who’s looking forward to a sequel to Sandy, there might actually be one someday. Don’t expect it to be out soon, though, Carol and I are still working on the sequel to “Wanted: hero” and there are some other things on the stove. (Why do I think of Hilda’s kitchen now?) But it’s definitely maybe going to happen!

I hope you will appreciate this little update on the progress of my writing projects. First:

Hilda’s 19th adventure.

Yes, it’s really coming. Final edits are just about done now and the creation of the actual books (e-book and paperback) is underway. This, I think, is also a good moment to sneak you a peek of the cover so you have an idea of the title of this book.

Okay. Here we go.

No more delay.

Tada!

Yes, the title of the new book is “Witches’ myths”. It is about the myths of witches, which is an entirely different ballgame from the myths that ordinaries deal with. You’ll read all about it as soon as possible! I might add that the moment of as soon as possible has a final date too. On February 1st of this year the e-books will be available at all the usual e-book holes! (The paperback will come when it’s ready, I am waiting for the proof print.)

The magic of the bull

This is progressing well. It is the translation of a Dutch fantasy story I wrote. I’m very proud of it. The story tells things of Medieval times and the Roman era, so if you want to brush up your knowledge on that, this is the book for you.

Wanted: hero

Do you remember this book? Yes? Good.

I’ve written a sequel to it which I’m currently checking for the worst errors before Carol will go over it with her fine comb to take away the stupid things I left in there.

I’ll tell you that the title of the sequel will be “Wanted: adventurer”. Some ingredients of the story are Sabas and Reny (which should not be very surprising) and there will be more Artors.

It’s been hard work getting this story done in the way it should be done but finally the end is coming nearer. I hope to publish this book this year. No promises though.

Lily Marin – the second novel

Yes, there is going to be another steampunk novel around Lily and Billy.

As it was with the first book, this one is putting up a tremendous fight so it will take a lot of time to write and tame it. But it will be done!

And that wraps up the updates for me.

I hope you all are doing well in this new year and I look forward to telling you when Hilda’s Myths are available!

Some may consider this a bit odd as New Year is behind us already. I don’t care. As long as it’s happy I’m all in favour of wishing you every good thing.

First of all of course I hope everyone entered this new year, 2017, with good health. If you’re suffering from anything, may this year bring you healing and comfort.

Next of all I am pleased to say that the work on Hilda 19 is going well. I’m slowly working my way backwards through the text (I agree, a strange way to read it but it’s worth the while for me) so it should be ready for publication “soon”. In this case that will take another month, maybe two, but with too many things in the non-book-world there is only so much time I can spend on writing and other fun stuff.

Even nexter (yes, I make those words up as I go along and need them), the work on the sequel to “Wanted: hero” is coming along well also. I’m over half the chapters in the first rework so readers in need of a good, new science fiction and a renewed meeting with Sabas and Reny are in for something special. I could of course tell a lot about it but I won’t. I’m evil like that. I learnt that from the best, and her name is Hilda.